Toronto Raptors: Three things to look out for against the Los Angeles Lakers

The Toronto Raptors will be facing the Los Angeles Lakers tonight, and here are three things to look out for.

A season of whatever you binged watched for 3 months has come to an end. You feel lifeless, clueless on what to watch next, and have no idea if another season is coming out. Well, this is the sentiment we got with the Toronto Raptors after the NBA season was halted. But now with the season coming back, the new season is finally here, and what better way than to kickstart it against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Let’s look at three things to take note of in this game.

Pascal Siakam continuous struggles against good defenders

The last time the Toronto Raptors faced the Lakers, Siakam struggled to score despite being the team’s leading scorer that night. The reason? Anthony Davis.

When Siakam was guarded by AD, Siakam went 0 for 8 on field goals. It is no surprise that Siakam has struggled to score against one of the league’s best defenders. We’ll have to see what Siakam does and if Nick Nurse lets someone else be the primary scorer.

O.G Anunoby

We all know if Anunoby played for the LA Lakers, he’d be in the running for an All-Defensive team. Especially after being left out of the few ballots already, from guys like Zach Lowe, Kevin O’Connor, and Dan Devine. Some of them had LeBron James in place of Anunoby, the player who Anunoby defended so well 265 days ago.

LeBron struggled to get to the rim and even with the extraordinary defense by Anunoby — LeBron shot 5-15 from the field — he still found other ways to be effective with his 13 assists. If the Toronto Raptors want any chance of winning, Anunoby will have to continue his excellent defense on LeBron.

Anthony Davis

Anthony Davis played out of his mind in the Restart opener, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he continues that today against the Raptors. The last time they faced, Marc Gasol and Pascal Siakam were the ones defending Davis, but it didn’t really matter.

Davis scored 27 points, scoring 50 percent from the field. Davis will be the biggest problem for the Toronto Raptors and he just seems unstoppable at this point. The biggest question will be if Nurse lets AD get the shots he wants but shut down LeBron effectively or if they have a gameplan for AD coming into the game.

The Toronto Raptors will have to be smart, they already beat them shorthanded — Lowry and Ibaka were injured in their first encounter — and now they have a chance to beat them at full strength tonight.